What Is Literature

“Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature" is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction.” (about.com, 2nd September, 2007) is according to About.com the literal meaning of literature. This is only according to the dictionary, it is actually very hard to define literature as to many people it means different things depending on their perception. To a writer literature is a way of expressing his/her feelings, to a high school child literature could be two things, one is that it could be an amazing work of art that gives them great pleasure when the read it, the other is that they think it is just another piece of homework they need to get done before they get detention. My definition would be that literature is a piece of writing in which a person can express his or her feelings in the form of poetry or a story and this is usually a very effective language. In my essay I will attempt to explain what literature is and how different view points affect it.

One of the reasons to read is that it builds your imagination; it helps you visualize what the writer says and puts you in his shoes. This helps build your imagination as there is no real picture but instead a picture is visualized in your heard and this picture is what helps build This helps build your imagination as there is no real picture but instead a picture is visualized in your heard and this picture is what helps build our imagination. For example Harry Potter, when I read the books, I imagine myself in Harry’s shoes seeing everything he sees and doing everything he does. Literature is also a way of expressing one’s feelings, so when a writer, or any one of us, writes we express our feeling either unintentionally or intentionally. It shows us the thought process of the writer and we too can feel it.

Literature is also a way of gaining knowledge. It can teach us many different things from learning how to sail to learning how people think. This helps with our IQ and our general knowledge about the world. For example when I read the book ‘Philosophy: Who Needs it?’ by Ayn Rand, I learned